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I was born in November 1932 and I distinctly remember listening to Mr Chamberlain’s momentous broadcast to tell us we were at war.
First I was sent privately to Lady Margaret Manor, Doddington, Kent to get me out of London. Daily five of us children walked over a mile to school each day. On our way back we called at a cottage where a lady we only knew as “Granny” gave each of us an apple to eat as we walked back. I also remember that, in due season, as we reached the cherry orchards, we were allowed to walk through, picking the cherries. The rule was “Eat as many as you like but don’t carry any away”.
Later I returned to London and spent nights in an Anderson Shelter - when I couldn’t sneak out to watch the “fireworks”. Then I was “Officially” evacuated to Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire where I lived with a couple who were childless. From there I walked about a mile to school and then back in the evening. On one night a week I repeated the journey to go to Cubs. The lady I was billeted with became ill and I moved to another house in Chalfont where there were two children and, just up the road they had some cousins. The household had a Morgan three-wheeler and you can imagine the fun we lads had squashed in the back while their Mother and father were in the front seats.
One night I had a heavy nosebleed, an even which recurred on the following nights. The couple with whom I was billeted called in their own doctor to treat me but, out of duty, informed the billeting officer. He/she [I do not remember which but probably a lady from the WVS], insisted that the billeting system must deal with matters so I was taken to a hospital. On release I was not returned to Chalfont but billeted in a farm cottage at Little Missenden, where I was one of ten children, some evacuees, others were the children of the labourer and his wife. In due course eight of the children were, one at a time, struck down with diphtheria. Each time the diminishing remainder had a swab taken. It is no wonder that even now I have a gagging reflex and find it hard to put a toothbrush inside my mouth to clean the inside of my back teeth.
Eventually the two original couples found me and I returned to the household with the two boys.
Shortly after this, my widowed mother got a live-in job in Hassocks and she found me a billet along the road from her. I spent a happy time there and remember that there was barbed wire along the front at Brighton and one could not walk on the seaward side of the road, because the wire was between the pavement and the road.
I then moved to live with an Aunt and Uncle in Park Street, just south of St Albans. I was the envy of my friends at the local village school as the path running in front of the one up, one down cottage was at the end of the Handley Page runway. With encouragement from my class teacher Mrs Larter, I took and won a Scholarship to St Albans County School, which at that time was still fee-paying.
I cannot remember VE Day but do remember that I was on holiday in Dunstaffnage, near Oban, on VJ day. I was on holiday with an aaunt and uncle who had been relocated there with the Naval Repair base from Sheerness.

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